Star Idol

Star Idol

Star Idol was a competition held on 2005 in Singapore, aired on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. It was first released on the Internet on 11 August2005, started the elimination rounds on November 22005 with the programme airing on Wednesdays at 8pm and the competition ended with a two-hour grand final on Sunday March 192006 at 8pm. The competition is now defunct replaced by another acting competition, Star Search, which has crowned several A-list celebrities of Singapore. This is because the contestants of Star Idol have been criticized for the lack of talent.

Release

When the news was released, the article posted asked for suggestions of the mascot - a large red gorilla that resembled King Kong. Details of the auditions were given for those who wanted to auditions, and they were :

All Singaporeans and PRs are allowed to participate and must be aged 16 to 35. All races are welcomed as long as he or she is fluent in the Chinese Mandarin language.

Auditions

The auditions were held on September 3 2005, where unlimited amounts of hopefuls tried out. They had to memorise 5 scripts but only act out 1 (that was randomly chosen by a panel of judges that later in the competition repeatedly changed). The registration costs $10 each and was paid on the audition day itself. An estimated total of 2000 people auditioned.

Competition

Roughly 500 people from the auditions were called back to enter the competition and start recognition from the media. The number was cut down after a series of elimination till there were 10 male and female semi-finalists.

Semi-Finals

The semi-finals had the contestants be paired up (male and female) and use their acting skills on the stage where it was pre-recorded. A panel of judges that repeatedly changed would comment after a performance of each pair, but no points would be given out. Instead, the public will choose who will stay and who will leave the stage through voting. Each week, a male and a female contestant is eliminated til 4 male contestants and 4 female contestants were left, in which the top 8 proceed to the next stage of the competition.

When the announcements were made, the Top 8 were formed and they were given the chances to star in the competition interactive drama - Who Is It?. They were Jacqueline Sue, Leann Koh, Alicia Neo and Lilian Lai of the females and Kang Cheng Xi, Leo Lam, Bryan Wong and Lincoln Khoo of the males.

Finals

The drama 'Who Is It' took up the whole of the semi-finals and they were all pre-recorded and aired on Wednesdays at 8pm. The only live performances were through the announcements which were announced at 10.30pm except for the episode on Feb 222006, which was a delayed version at 11.30pm due to the airing of the eulogy of former Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Sinnathamby Rajaratnam at 10.30pm who passed away earlier that day.

Who Is It also stars veterans San Yow and Ann Kok, who play a multimillionaire and his assistant respectively. A multimillionaire named Cao Wan Neng brings eight people who have crossed paths with him and at some points, helped him, to his island where he allows them to take a breather and relax. However, things are going strange, and there is a strange scream. Someone has gone missing.

Lilian Lai is the first contestant to leave, and it was because she had garnered the least votes out of the 8. Therefore, the story of the drama goes as the eliminated contestant will have his/her character going missing in the drama.

Everyone gets suspicious of how Lilian has gone missing, and then, to their shock, Bryan gets missing too. Pan An An (Ann Kok) tries to find out who, and meanwhile, a quack inspector called Inspector Zhu (Thomas Ong) is hired to investigate into it. Unfortunately, things get out of hand and soon, Leann and Lincoln get missing too.

However, a new discovery has been made by two of the remaining people - Leo and Jacqueline, and they discover that Cao Wan Neng is wearing a mask. That is at fact one side of the story, and the other is revealed when Lilian, Leann, Bryan and Lincoln find each other at another side of the island with the real Wan Neng, who tells them that he has been imposed. Soon enough, an assassin is hired to kill them and Wan Neng finds a raft, where he tries to swim back to his island.

(This part was made as the revival round for the four eliminated contestant, and the revived contestant would join Wan Neng on his raft and go back to the island, safe and sound.

This contestant was Bryan, and he joined Leo, Jacqueline, Cheng Xi and Alicia to continue the drama. )

The assassin was never found and the imposter wearing Wan Neng's mask has ran away. The other three contestants were badly injured and were taken to hospitals. Meanwhile, Jacqueline is investigating into her mother's past when she realises that Wan Neng might be related to him. Her investigation is not completed when she suddenly goes missing.

More suspects go into the case, including An An, who was seen in red liquid all over her body the day after Alicia, the next contestant, was missing. The red liquid was proved to be paint instead of blood, but Cheng Xi's romantic relationship with her ends. Bryan was thought to be a suspect once due to his unstable personality after Jacqueline, his girlfriend, became missing.

The last episode of the drama had the truth revealed, but a hint that Alicia and Jacqueline are no longer alive. The villain behind these cases is Inspector Zhu, who wants to kill them. The last scene of the drama had him shooting either Bryan, Leo or Cheng Xi down, and Wan Neng asking An An who has been shot.

The shot contestant was Cheng Xi, who was eliminated and failed to enter the Grand Finals. The drama closed without revealing if Bryan or Leo was the sole survivor on the island. Instead, the grand finals started a new drama with three parts.

Grand Finals

Leo and Bryan, with voting numbers 1 and 5 respectively. Ann Kok reprises her contribution to the competition by playing a rich director of an acting company and being the judge for Leo and Bryan, who were auditioning to become actors.

On Part 1 of 3, Leo is late for the auditions and Bryan begins first. He plays the husband of a captured wife by the master of a group of thugs. Bryan is captured and was stripped naked until he stopped them from taking his underwear, and he fights the master (Adam Chen), who is not wearing his shirt. The auditions suddenly stop with an interference where the director comments on Bryan's acting. Leo suddenly arrives but he is late, and the director refuses to entertain him.

On Part 2 of 3, Leo asks the director on a date where he tells her that he has fallen for her. However, he is rejected and begins to cry. Meanwhile, at another side of the restaurant Leo is at, Bryan is with Paris (played by Felicia Chin), his girlfriend. The two of them kisses.

On Part 3 of 3, Leo and Bryan are called back and they begin a dance battle, in which Leo was more agile.

The grand finals have come to an end and after a period of voting, the announcement begins in the drama's style too.

Leo and Bryan think about what they will be if they become stars - girls pushing each other to get their signatures or flashes made by hundreds of news reporters. The next day, they approach the director, and Leo is thwarted by Paris who tries to ruin Leo's image. Nevertheless, the director did not announce, and instead, a computer video clip was played and who is winner was.

The first Star Idol of 2005/06 was Bryan Wong, who had garnered 61% of the total votes. He won himself a 2 year contract with Mediacorp and also, an S$80,000 diamond where he later gave his mom. When the 3 parts had ended, the judges revealed who they thought should be winner (at no effect of the results, which were 100% votes). All of them had chosen Bryan instead of Leo.

NOTE: The bottom two breakdown shows a Final 5 after the Top 5. This is because a revival round was held for the 4 ousted contestants, in which, Bryan(the eventual winner) was revived, forming the Final Five with the other four which got through the first four cuts.

Week

Bottom Two

Top 8

Lilian Lai

Lincoln Khoo

Top 7

Bryan Wong

Jacqueline Sue

Top 6

Leann Koh

Jacqueline Sue(2)

Top 5

Lincoln Khoo(2)

Jacqueline Sue(3)

Final 5

Jacqueline Sue(4)

Leo Lam

Final 4

Alicia Neo

Bryan Wong(2)

Final 3

Kang Chengxi

Final 2

Leo Lam

Bryan Wong

Finals Details

Suspects

In no particular order, these suspects were thought to be the ones behind the cases of a person getting missing every time.

1. Jacqueline (Leo mentioned her passing an envelope of cash to a topless man whose muscular body resembled Bryan, but face did not. As Bryan was at that point eliminated, the shirtless man was not him. This was not known to be true or not.)

2. An An (As the assistant of Wan Neng, An An was suspected to be eyeing for Wan Neng's money)

3. Bryan (After Jacqueline dumped him and later got missing, Bryan suffered a few mental disorders.)

4. Inspector Zhu (it was indeed him who bore a grudge with Wan Neng, but it was his silliness and strange orders of investigations that made him a suspect.)

Romance

A few couples were chosen to play romantic partners, but many have failed due to the eliminated of that contestant.

1. Lincoln and Alicia (from the first episode, Lincoln had already fallen in love with Alicia, and he mentioned that it was from a young age. However, Alicia is fierce towards Lincoln)

2. Cheng Xi and Alicia (Alicia falls in love with Cheng Xi after a dispute and an accidental kiss when they slip on the wet floor. They develop a relationship)

3. Bryan and Jacqueline (Bryan has been in deep love with Jacqueline, but the latter only uses him for money, and even to get closer to Wan Neng.)

4. Cheng Xi and Jacqueline (Jacqueline tries to seduce Cheng Xi on a volleyball game and Alicia, who is at that time Cheng Xi's girlfriend, keeps hitting her with the ball. Cheng Xi helps Jacqueline by guarding her and hitting Alicia instead. It first began when Jacqueline hugged Cheng Xi on a bed by the beach for Alicia's sight. This relationship was put to an end when Jacqueline became missing.)

5. Leo and Leann (There has been no romance between these two characters, although their concern for each other help them become good friends.)

Characters' Fates

Lilian - injured but safe and admitted to hospital

Bryan - safe
Leann - injured but safe and admitted to hospital

Lincoln - injured but safe and admitted to hospital

Jacqueline - presumably dead. body never found.

Alicia - presumably dead. body never found.

Cheng Xi - shot by a bullet, there could not have been enough time for him to be driven to hospital as the island was closed off entrance and exits. most probably dead.

Leo - safe.

Wan Neng - safe.

An An - safe.

Inspector Zhu - presumably caught by the police

Methods of Going Missing

These are the few methods used when a character goes missing.

There is a loud scream from someone's room. That person is gone. (Lilian)

There is a shadow lurking and someone is captured. (Bryan)

There is a black out and someone drops into the sea while the others panic and start running about. (Leann)

There is a camping trip to the forests but someone gets lost halfway. (Lincoln)

There is a loud scream when the remaining contestants are on their own. (Jacqueline).

There is a party held when a sudden chaos appears and everyone begins to panic. When all is over, someone is missing. (Alicia.)

There is a bullet shot and a contestant is attacked. (Cheng Xi.)

Flawed Drama Storyline

Due to the ever-changing and unpredictable script of the drama that can never continue unless a contestant is eliminated, there has been much flaws in the drama 'Who Is It', or rather, unrealistic materials.

1. Jacqueline's attempt to seduce Cheng Xi from Alicia did not leave Alicia as a suspect for Jacqueline being missing.

2. Inspector Zhu played a completely innocent person and was seen investigating into the cases alone. As he was alone, he would not need to pretend, and this proved his innocence. To surprise, he was the mastermind behind the chaos.

3. How is it that a person could have worn a mask that made him look like exact human? Even so, how can that person mimic another's voice to 100% match? Jacqueline had a scene where she touched the fake Wan Neng's face.

Contestants after Star Idol

Currently, only winner Bryan Wong Yuan Lee and second-runner up Kang Cheng Xi have been offered contracts in which they signed. Bryan's first role is not much of a supporting actor (Shu Tang in An Enchanted Life). Cheng Xi's first role has more scenes and he qualifies as a supporting or perhaps, a lead actor after Li Nan Xing (Ma Lu in A Million Treasures). Other contestants like Lincoln, Alicia and Leann have appeared in extremely minor roles that appear for less than a minute. Examples are Lincoln being a gangster. Leann has a larger role and plays Ma Lu's (Cheng Xi) first love interest who cheats on him. Jacqueline was offered a supporting role as Ah Lian, Joanne Peh's best friend, in Like Father Like Daughter, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Star Awards nomination.

There has not been any release on news of a second Star Idol. The length of the first Star Idol competition is roughly 7 months.

Trivia

While filming the finals, Bryan and Cheng Xi shared a room and they were caught on camera fooling around by sleeping shirtless in the same bed.

On the revival round episode, Lilian stepped on an unknown sea creature while filming the raft scene where they tried to run to Wan Neng. She was injected with more than 1 injection.

Leann mentioned that her elimination was wanted as she wanted a break and 'her fans required a rest of repeatedly dialling her vote number'. She had told that to her fans on a roadshow.

An article was released on the internet by the Mediacorp Channel 8 website and the synopsis of the episodes were not of what was aired. The synopsis had Jacqueline's name as Hazel.

Although the Top 8 were the main cast of the finals, Garret Lim and Quek Siow Wei were also brought to the island, although they were never filmed.

Each contestant was assigned a permanent voting number throughout the Finals.

On the grand finals, it was reported on the Mediacorp Channel 8 website that Leo passed his cell phone to Cheng Xi and told him to vote for him (Leo) as much as he could. Cheng Xi was with another phone, and it was presumably Bryan's.

In comparison to Campus SuperStar and SuperHost, two other Singaporean competitions that were held when Star Idol was in progress, a magazine mentioned Star Idol being the best flesh parade (the girls would often wear bikinis and the guys were shirtless).